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How to Properly "Prune" Your Email Lists

by Joey Babbs
17 replies
Hi,

I have a pretty decent sized list of gamers on Aweber but when I search for how many people have actually opened the emails in the last year I have some people not opening the messages for months. I have never pruned this list of subscribers before.

I know it helps to delete inactive users for many reasons...so...

1. How do most of you clean up your lists from Aweber?

2. Are you deleting "un - openers" ?

If so... have you considered the fact that Aweber only measures un-openers for people who use HTML messages and not text...

Any other tricks for pruning your email lists?
#email #lists #properly #prune
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    I have aweber ... how do you tell which ones have not opened your email?
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    • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      I have aweber ... how do you tell which ones have not opened your email?
      choose the list, then select Subscribers >> Search then go to first field and select "no opens" then second field select "since" then 3rd field select "date" then search
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      • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Joey Babbs View Post

        choose the list, then select Subscribers >> Search then go to first field and select "no opens" then second field select "since" then 3rd field select "date" then search
        Hmmm... my Aweber account is through automateyourlist.com, a white label version and there is no "no opens" in the first field. There's also no "since" in the second field. The url that I am on is https://www.aweber.com/users/leads
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    personally I always delete everyone from countries that I don't sell to, or who aren't likely to buy (like India, Malaysia, Nigeria - oh and Russia! lol)... that gets rid of hundreds/thousands of useless optins. I wish there was a proactive way to IP block optins from specific countries; htaccess at root on domain is best way I suppose. and yea how do you know who doesn't open w/aw?
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Using the open and non-open metric to determine active
      users is WILDLY inaccurate because of the way that opens
      are tracked and measured.

      Opens are only recorded for subscribers who allow the
      tracking image to be displayed in the e-mail. By default,
      popular e-mail clients like GMail, Outlook, etc have image
      loading turned OFF by default. (Therefore, the image that
      tracks opens doesn't get loaded unless the subscriber
      proactively loads the image or changes their default
      settings).

      If you delete the 'non-openers' you are GUARANTEED to
      be deleting some active users who do actually read your
      e-mails.

      I prefer to use more reliable list metrics like whether the
      user has clicked on a link (or not) to identify active and
      inactive subscribers.

      You can also delete subscribers who haven't confirmed
      yet to reduce your total subscriber count too.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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      • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
        Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

        Using the open and non-open metric to determine active
        users is WILDLY inaccurate because of the way that opens
        are tracked and measured.

        Opens are only recorded for subscribers who allow the
        tracking image to be displayed in the e-mail. By default,
        popular e-mail clients like GMail, Outlook, etc have image
        loading turned OFF by default. (Therefore, the image that
        tracks opens doesn't get loaded unless the subscriber
        proactively loads the image or changes their default
        settings).

        If you delete the 'non-openers' you are GUARANTEED to
        be deleting some active users who do actually read your
        e-mails.

        I prefer to use more reliable list metrics like whether the
        user has clicked on a link (or not) to identify active and
        inactive subscribers.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
        Wouldnt this only work for each message though and not all messages at once...so are you saying each message you send you check links clicked? If so this would also be very inaccurate...unless I am missing something.
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      • Profile picture of the author WebPen
        Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

        Using the open and non-open metric to determine active
        users is WILDLY inaccurate because of the way that opens
        are tracked and measured.

        Opens are only recorded for subscribers who allow the
        tracking image to be displayed in the e-mail. By default,
        popular e-mail clients like GMail, Outlook, etc have image
        loading turned OFF by default. (Therefore, the image that
        tracks opens doesn't get loaded unless the subscriber
        proactively loads the image or changes their default
        settings).

        If you delete the 'non-openers' you are GUARANTEED to
        be deleting some active users who do actually read your
        e-mails.

        I prefer to use more reliable list metrics like whether the
        user has clicked on a link (or not) to identify active and
        inactive subscribers.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
        Is their method really that inaccurate?

        I had never heard that before
        Signature
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        • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
          Originally Posted by Joey Babbs View Post

          Wouldnt this only work for each message though and not all messages at once...so are you saying each message you send you check links clicked? If so this would also be very inaccurate...unless I am missing something.
          I use a self-hosted autoresponder software that allows
          me to track click activity better than AWeber and most
          other autoresponder solutions.

          With the software (ActiveCampaign) I can also automatically
          add subscribers to a new list - in the background to allow me
          to continually identify my active subscribers based on their
          click behavior.

          Infusionsoft also have better click tracking functionality to
          segment your lists by the subscriber's link clicking behavior.

          Originally Posted by Justin Stowe View Post

          Is their method really that inaccurate?
          Yes it is - for most autoresponder companies - not just
          AWeber.

          If the subscriber doesn't allow the tracking image to
          load, the they're classed as a non-opener (unless
          they click on a trackable link).

          Period.

          Dedicated to mutual success,

          Shaun
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          • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
            Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

            I use a self-hosted autoresponder software that allows
            me to track click activity better than AWeber.

            With the software (ActiveCampaign) I can also automatically
            add subscribers to a new list - in the background to allow me
            to continually identify my active subscribers based on their
            click behavior.


            Yes it is - for most autoresponder companies - not just
            AWeber.

            If the subscriber doesn't allow the tracking image to
            load, the they're classed as a non-opener.

            Period.

            Dedicated to mutual success,

            Shaun
            Thanks, still not clear though....

            So are you saying you search each individual message you send and then you prune after every message the people that do not CLICK? Because if so that too is an innacurate determination of "unresponsive".

            From what I understand there is no function in Aweber to show "Did not Click since XXXX date" it only allows you to search "Did not click link in message XXXX"
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            • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
              Originally Posted by Joey Babbs View Post

              So are you saying you search each individual message you send and then you prune after every message the people that do not CLICK?
              No. I don't do it that way because I'm not limited by the
              basic list segmentation functionality within AWeber.
              Originally Posted by Joey Babbs View Post

              From what I understand there is no function in Aweber to show "Did not Click since XXXX date" it only allows you to search "Did not click link in message XXXX"
              The software solution that I use allows me to segment
              my lists very finely and also identify the most active
              subscribers based on criteria like dates.

              Therefore, I can identify people who have clicked on any
              links in the past 90-days (for example) so I know who
              the most active and live subscribers are.

              Dedicated to mutual success,

              Shaun
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              • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
                Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

                No. I don't do it that way because I'm not limited by the
                basic list segmentation functionality within AWeber.

                The software solution that I use allows me to segment
                my lists very finely and also identify the most active
                subscribers based on criteria like dates.

                Therefore, I can identify people who have clicked on any
                links in the past 90-days (for example) so I know who
                the most active and live subscribers are.

                Dedicated to mutual success,

                Shaun
                This sounds very appealing...and something I would like to consider but I am not tech saavy when it comes to installing this stuff and setting it up on my own server to ensure deliverability...I wonder if they have the same tracking in their hosted versions and if it is good deliver rates, and affordable like Aweber claims to be.
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                • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
                  Originally Posted by Joey Babbs View Post

                  This sounds very appealing...and something I would like to consider but I am not tech saavy when it comes to installing this stuff and setting it up on my own server to ensure deliverability...I wonder if they have the same tracking in their hosted versions and if it is good deliver rates, and affordable like Aweber claims to be.
                  I believe that the hosted version of ActiveCampaign is
                  almost the same version as the self-hosted version in
                  terms of functionality.

                  The functionality that I use for click tracking is the
                  automation feature and it's available in both versions:

                  Email Marketing Automation - Triggers - Automate (no affil.)

                  Used intelligently, you can get it to track nearly as finely
                  as Infusionsoft.

                  Regardless, it does need a bit of technical know-how to
                  set-up the subscriber actions and custom fields correctly.

                  Dedicated to mutual success,

                  Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    Aweber recommends deleting anyone that hasn't opened in 6 months. There is no "best" time though.

    But if all of those non openers are putting you into more expensive pricing- delete enough to get back under the line.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
      Originally Posted by Justin Stowe View Post

      Aweber recommends deleting anyone that hasn't opened in 6 months. There is no "best" time though.

      But if all of those non openers are putting you into more expensive pricing- delete enough to get back under the line.
      Pricing was one of the reasons, but not the only reason...I also want to have an accurate account of how many active subscribers I actually have which is actually more important to me than pricing.
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  • Profile picture of the author doshmachine
    Good Work Shaun! A lot to dwell on there! Do you recommend any self hosted auto responders? I'm sure there's a mixture of good and bad out there!
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  • Profile picture of the author Noah Fleming
    If you offer tremendous value people will open again. Pump the value in like intravenous.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joey Babbs
      Originally Posted by Noah Fleming View Post

      If you offer tremendous value people will open again. Pump the value in like intravenous.
      Yeah maybe...probably not if its already going to their SPAM box...and they havent opened a message in over a year
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